Toppling of Gaddafi a pivotal moment for Mali say Welsh hoteliers

A Welsh couple who ran a hotel in Mali told Political Editor David Williamson how Gaddafi’s fall brought violence to a country they loved.

The Arab Spring brought winds of change to the Middle East but also a hurricane of chaos to Africa. A Welsh couple who ran a hotel in Mali told Political Editor David Williamson how Gaddafi’s fall brought violence to a country they loved

BRITAIN’S military intervention in Libya was watched with horror by people in Mali who knew the fall of Gaddafi would trigger chaos, according to a Welsh couple who fled the mayhem.

Neil Whitehead, 59, and Diane English, 55, from near Abergavenny, made headlines last year when they fled the Timbuktu hotel they ran and, dressed in tribal clothes, escaped to Mauritania.

Today, they look back on the toppling of the Libyan dictator in October 2011 as a pivotal moment for Mali, which today is rocked by civil war as French and government forces battle Islamist-linked groups in the north.

Ms English recalled the reaction of locals when they heard that countries including the UK and France had intervened in Libya.

“Everybody we spoke to were absolutely horrified,” she said. “They said this would be awful for the region – ‘What do they think they are doing?’

“Certainly there was no support whatsoever locally for the intervention in Libya. It wasn’t they liked Gaddafi; it was they feared the consequences for themselves.”

Gaddafi’s links to members of Mali’s Tuareg people were well known.

Mr Whitehead said: “I don’t know to what extent he supported them but he was liked by the Tuaregs and a number went to Libya to fight for him against the rebels in Libya.”

It is widely thought that many of those who fought on Gaddafi’s side returned, with weapons, to fight for independence from the rest of Mali as members of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA).

The group fought alongside Islamist forces that soon sidelined the MNLA once the government forces were ousted.

Mr Whitehead said the extremists “started to impose a very brutal and extreme form of Sharia and started abusing the population – robbing, looting, raping etc”.

David Cameron has said the UK and its partners are now in a “generational struggle against an ideology which is an extreme distortion of the Islamic faith”.

The Welsh couple argue it is a major mistake to draw comparisons between Mali and Afghanistan or to suggest that the armed groups are driven by religious beliefs.

Mr Whitehead said: “There have always been bandits in the desert and they have been kidnapping westerners, etc and they dress it up as being religiously motivated. It isn’t. It’s just banditry and making money.”

Ms English agreed, saying: “I think that one of the worst things that could happen is to overplay the significance of religion in this.”

Describing the hypocrisy of the supposed zealots, she said: “On one hand they are stopping people from smoking. On the other they make a lot of money smuggling cigarettes and drugs.

“They certainly don’t have the support of the local population. That’s not to say there aren’t locals who will offer assistance for money; there’s extreme poverty.”

Her partner doubted that there was local appetite for the militant Islam enforced by some of the armed groups, claiming the “idea of all the women wearing veils and being shuttered in their houses all the time is anathema to them”.

He said: “I find there that it’s a style of Islam that’s extremely tolerant. They have no problem with Christians or peoples that aren’t of their own, provided they are not offensive...

“The Malians interpret Islam in a very individual and personal way, I guess much like Christians do here.”

French troops entered Timbuktu this week but the pair argue that deeper causes of instability must be addressed for Mali to enjoy lasting peace.

Mr Whitehead said: “What’s going to happen in the future is going to be difficult because the Tuaregs do have legitimate grievances that to some extent, and they’d say to a large extent, they have been ignored and sidelined by the government.”

The official government has also been hit by chaos. In March President Toumani Toure was deposed by army officers angry at the government’s failure to tackle the rebellion in the north.

Ms English said there were also grievances about conditions in the military and “it all got out of hand and they ended up with a coup on their hands”.

Social progress is also essential, she argues, for the might of the armed groups to be broken.

Their power to instil fear will be reduced, she insists, if we stop talking about the militants as religious fighters because such language gives them “far too much weight and credence”.

She said: “It creates a lot of fear and one of the only ways forward is to have conditions on the ground [where] people can see their lives are improving – they are getting education for their children; they are getting medical care; they are able to make a living.”

In such circumstances, she argues, people will have a vested interest in keeping a stable society.

The hoteliers are also quick to note that not all Tuareg supported the fight for independence – and the violence has caused many to flee.

Ms English said an “entire village left in January to the refugee camp in Mauritania because they feared the repercussions”.

However, she remains optimistic she and her partner will be able to return to the country they love.

“I think there’s every hope for long-term stability and the reason why I think that is because of the Malians themselves,” she said.

Mr Whitehead said it can be hard for an outsider to learn how local people feel about developments.

“They don’t speak badly of anyone,” he said. “It’s very pleasant to live there but it’s very difficult to get a handle on how people actually feel about things.”

However, he is in no doubt there is a direct link between the crises afflicting the country today and UK foreign policy decisions.

He said: “When Sarkozy and Cameron in their wisdom decided to support the rebels in Libya and hasten the downfall of Gaddafi I’m not sure they thought about the wider consequences.”

Convinced that militant groups were able to get their hands on weapons as a result of the Libyan conflict, he said: “Obviously, I don’t speak to them personally but it’s generally well known they brought with them a whole load of looted guns from Libya.”

While he maintains there is a need to “clear out the bandits as much a possible” he recognises it will not be possible to “wipe them out completely”. The key resource Mali needs is the “political will to find a solution.”

Before their escape, aided by MNLA rebels following negotiations with the French, they were involved in numerous projects to improve their community. The trauma of fleeing through the desert has not quelled their desire to return.

SLAUGHTER in Syria, riots in Egypt, the killing of US diplomats in Libya, the hostage crisis in Algeria and the civil war in Mali have together unthreaded much of the optimism that defined the Arab Spring.

Comparisons can be drawn with the excitement which greeted the fall of the Berlin Wall and the horror with which the world watched ethnic killing in the former Yugoslavia.

The UK and France did not stand on the sidelines when Gaddafi’s forces appeared on the verge of massacring rebels and civilians. Now, France is taking the lead in attacking rebel groups in Mali and Britain is increasing its contribution, although fears of “mission creep” are rife in Westminster.

There is determination in Government that “ungoverned spaces” must not be allowed to fall into the hands of Islamist-linked groups. It is hard to see how this cannot involve the use of force – and with this will come unforeseen consequences.

The region’s ethnic, tribal and religious divisions are tripwires that could detonate new conflicts but the UK is keen to be on the front-foot in stopping failed states springing up across North Africa.

Downing St yesterday said up to 200 British military personnel could be dispatched to West Africa to train a regional intervention force for Mali.

This is on top of the 40 personnel Britain is offering to contribute to an EU training mission to build up the country’s army.

There would be great resistance to the UK taking on an explicit combat role at a time when efforts are underway to draw troops out of Afghanistan. The United States is haunted by the memory of the losses it suffered in Somalia in 1993, portrayed in the film Black Hawk Down; it will be determined to avoid slipping into such a humiliation, and adamant it must not risk a debacle on the scale of Iraq or Vietnam.

But if energy resources are under constant threat and terrorist bases are established in this region that faces Europe the West will be drawn deeper into wars that lack a clear endpoint.

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